The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland Read Free Book Online

scribbled-on script. “I can practically feel the drama from downstairs,” he said, kicking off his shoes and sitting on the sofa opposite the bed. He dropped the script on the floor and folded his hands behind his head. “So is this a tragedy or a comedy?”
    Mom tilted her head, considering. “I think a dramedy,” she said.
    â€œWhat?” Marigold said, hunching over and pressing her fists to her tired eyes. “It’s not funny. It’s notfunny at all. Daddy,” she pleaded, “please don’t make me go away. Please let me stay. I have an agent and a chance to audition for my dream movie. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. “
    â€œYou have a lot of lifetime ahead of you, kiddo,” Dad said.
    â€œThe answer is no, Marigold,” Mom added. “Let it go.”

10. Zinnie in Midair
    â€œD o you think we’ll see a whale from up here?” Zinnie asked when their gondola reached the top of the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier. The gondola was a circle-shaped bench with a high back and little swinging door for people to get on and off the ride. Zinnie, Dad, Marigold, and Mom were seated inside.
    â€œNot without binoculars,” Mom said. “Shoot! We should have brought them.”
    Zinnie made a visor with her hands and scanned the horizon, hoping that with just her naked eyes she’d still be able to see a whale or a pod of dolphins. She’d even settle for one dolphin. She just wanted something to remember California by. They were leaving for the East Coast in two days for three whole weeks, and her parents had agreed to take them to the pier as long asthey were packed for Pruet. Zinnie and Lily, with Berta’s help, both had their suitcases ready to go in about a half hour. Marigold, on the other hand, had spent the entire morning packing, and they hadn’t been able to leave the house until after lunch.
    After some pretty bad traffic and an emergency frozen yogurt stop, they were finally here, though not all of them were on the Ferris wheel. Lily and Berta were at the carousel, which was back by the bridge, much closer to the road. Lily was terrified of the ocean and refused to walk out beyond the old-fashioned ice cream parlor.
    Zinnie, however, thought all the fun started once she walked past the carousel and ice cream parlor, went beyond the fruit carts and the tourist shops and the arcade, and arrived at the amusement park. Even if they weren’t as scary or as fast as the ones at Universal Studios or as elaborate as those at Disneyland, she loved the rides that swept and looped and suspended her above the Pacific Ocean. She wasn’t about to take off for three whole weeks without reminding Dad that he had promised they would come here once school was out.
    The Ferris wheel paused at the tippy top of its cycle, and Zinnie held her breath as she looked down at the crowds on the pier and beach below. People were eating hot dogs, tacos, ice cream, and funnel cake. They were playing tag and splashing barefoot in thesurf. Boyfriends and girlfriends were holding hands and hugging. One family was even swimming, even though it was chilly enough for Zinnie to wear a light jacket. Mom wouldn’t let them go in the water here because she said it was polluted, but the blue-green waves looked clean and inviting from where Zinnie sat. Behind her was the city of Santa Monica with its office buildings and shopping malls. To the left were the fancy hotels where Marigold said some girls in her class were going to have their bat mitzvahs next year. And to the right was Malibu with its mansions and rugged pink cliffs.
    Above it all, swinging over the sea, with a chilly salt breeze blowing on her face, Zinnie felt peaceful. She wondered if the beach was what she would miss most about California. Mom said there was a beach in Pruet, but she’d also mentioned that it didn’t have an amusement park attached to it, or a mall down the